Where would you get next pet?

Majority in national survey would pick shelters over stores

by Sue Manning - May. 13, 2010 12:00 AMAssociated Press

LOS ANGELES - Remember that old song, "How much is that doggie in the window?" For most Americans, it seems it's no sale.

More than half of people in an Associated Press-Petside.com poll said they would get their next dog or cat from a shelter, nearly seven times the number who said they would buy their next pet from a store.

And more than four in 10 said they thought store pets could have hidden medical or psychological problems. That's significantly more than those who expressed the same concerns about pets from animal shelters or breeders.

Just 8 percent of those polled said they would get their next cat or dog at a store, while 13 percent said that's where they got the pet they have now.

Fifty-four percent of those polled said they would probably get their next pet from a shelter, while 23 percent went for a breeder.

The AP-Petside.com poll was conducted April 7-12 with 1,112 pet owners nationwide and had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.3 percentage points.